[1.1.9.8] Thorns Twistable - Wildblood Ritualist [sr+][vid]

Hi! :slightly_smiling_face:

Enjoying 1.1.9.8 so far? How about another build of mine?

Does anyone remember this guy from Fashion Dawn?


Back then, I said that the build for this fashion was too buttony. Many years have passed and only now I managed to make something playable for my taste. So the good fashion will not be forgotten! :partying_face: And I wanted to try Wildblood set too.

Why Ritualist? The Conjurer is definitely a better choice - controllable healing through BoD and RR, more Vitality Damage, much better exclusive skill Possession, even needed resistances. But Ritualist has MoT, less buttons to press, in-built DR skill (Ill Omen) and fits more for the fashion :smile:.

All right, here is what I constructed.

1. Grimtools link.

Lazy 2H Vitality setup with Scales :sweat_smile:. If you want more damage, feel free to change weapon augment to Potent Ravager’s Harvest and relocate points from Physique to Spirit. I just like ~3000 OA/DA values for my builds :slightly_smiling_face:. No Savagery line - the build does not have much time between debuffs and Vines casting, also I wanted to make the build kiteable.

2. In-game character stats.
WR_general_stats
general stats, only passive buffs are active. Damage Per Second is for Bone Harvest

WR_vines_breakdown
Grasping Vines breakdown

WR_magic_stats
magic stats

WR_defense_stats
defense stats

3. Gear/Build explanation.
I took all gear required to get hardcapped Grasping Vines and Devouring Swarm (for its huge Vitality RR values), and, of course, to cover CC resistances. Since Ritualist has none :crazy_face:.

  1. Core items.
    Set. Wildheart Vanguard. Turns our main weapon of destruction (Vines) into Vitality with in-built lifeleech and some %WD plus duration on top. Nice bonuses to Swarm too, to lifeleech even more.
  2. Mandatory items.
    Helmet. Ravager’s Dreadgaze (Minds variant). +1 to All Skills, great %DA, %Chaos res. Its granted skill is garbage, do not bother using it, cast another Vines instead.
    Rings. Wanton Carnage. Huge %Vitality Damage bonus and points to Grasping Vines line. Even %Bleed Damage helps a bit with decent numbers, even though it is not our main damage type.
    Chest. Fiendscale Jacket. Nice Vitality/Bleeding slot with +3 to Swarm, %Physical and Freeze res (important), Bleeding reduction in case of Reflective enemies, proc is also nice.
    Pants. Solael-Sect Legguards. In-built %Aether, %Bleeding and Freeze res (important), some ADCtH. For MIs - look for %Stun, %Slow, %Vitality, %Acid, %Pierce resistances, OA, Damage (in this order).
    Medal. Lagoth’Ak’s Bloodbinding. +3 to Swarm and some damage to it, in-built %Pierce res.
    Boots. Vilescorn Greaves. Good Vitality boots slot with +2 to Entangling Vines, %Aether, %Chaos and %Stun res.
  3. Can be changed.
    Amulet. Death-Watcher Pendant. Nice bonuses to Mogdrogen’s Pact and Call of the Grave, +1 to Necromancer on top. Easily farmable too, can have great affixes. But it should be used with Serenity relic to get fully-hardcapped Vines line. An alternative - Thread of Mortality (+1 to Shaman, %Phys res, stat lifeleech with proc, %Vitality and %Chaos res).
    Relic. Serenity. We do not have good Vitality Shaman relic, so Serenity is our choice to hardcap Vines line. +1 to All Skills, in-build %Aether and %Chaos res, defensive proc does not hurt. If you use Thread of Mortality amulet, relic slot could be replaced with something like Impurity or even Mortality, Uroboruuk’s Reaping (for those who wants to attack in melee :grin:).
    Gloves. Dark One’s Grasp. Just an okay Vitality slot with OA and bonuses to Wendigo Totem. Take whatever you want in their place.

No craft bonuses from blacksmiths :slightly_smiling_face:.

About Resistance Reduction. Total amount is ~138% (-65% from Devouring Swarm, -28% from Spectral Wrath modifier of Spectral Binding (when hit), -25% from Rattosh constellation and flat 20 from Scales constellation (when hit)). Kuba, Zantarin, Moosilauke, sometimes Benn’Jahr take considerable amount of time to kill, also do not recommend to fight SR Gargabol in melee on second phase, hits hard :slightly_smiling_face:. And, of course, Mad Queen, do not use Vines when her red aura is up (unless you want to die from a living machine gun). No special problems agains other Nemeses.

4. Gameplay.
Debuff enemies with Devouring Swarm, Ill Omen and let your Vines reap them apart! Use Bone Harvest on cooldown for its Damage bonuses and Hungering Void activation, Wendigo Totem for facetanking and guaranteed healing (important agains lifeleech-immune enemies like Zantarin), Call of the Grave for another damage boost and portion of healing if you use Deathwatcher Pendant amulet. MoT in dire situations for facetanking, Wendigo Rush for movement. Not a complete piano, but you always have something to press :grin:.

5. Videos.
Mad Queen (I said about her red aura earlier, just kite).

Kra’Vall.

Lokarr.

Morgoneth.

SR 75 full (slow against big single targets).

Avatar of Mogdrogen (potions are in the video, facetanking, no Aether Clusters/healpots used).

Ravager of Minds (potions are in the video, facetanking, no Aether Clusters used, occasional healpots on second phase).

Callagadra (potions are in the video, two %Pierce augments instead of Acid ones, kiting, no Aether Clusters used, occasional healpots. Died twice due to “nice” Wendigo Totem placement mechanic and MoT keybinding stuck while quicktapping).

Crate of Entertainment (potions are in the video, kiting, one tactical Aether Cluster, occasional healpots. A strange and tough fight thanks to Vines trap mechanic and boxes :thinking:).

Clones of Bourbon (potions are in the video, occasional healpots. Were tougher than Mogdrogen :rofl:).

The build is not fast, but tanky enough and sometimes fun (not against bosses though). What do you think? Might Conjurer be better? Feel free to share :slightly_smiling_face:.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

7 Likes

I summon this post to serve my purpose :smiling_imp:.

2 Likes

Most certainly not :slight_smile:

Here are some Wildblood builds from our builder’s discord:

This one was done by @grey-maybe, and I played it myself. It’s an absolute beast, facetanks all content (except Callagadra), super easy to play. Amulet is absolutely essential to have here as it increases the damage of Vines immensly (and with it increases your leech and your survivability). Another thing you can do is add totems to your rotation (especially with the right items that can support it, like Yugol chest and Valguur helmet). Savagery weaving seems pianoish at first but when you play it it’s not that hard.

And this is a Ritualist:

Done by @Retal_Abuser. Very similiar setup. I would say I prefer this devo map to what Grey did (because it offers more healing via scales). It’s more tanky than Archon but has less mobility and a bit more piano. Notice it also doesn’t have blue rings, because Morgo ring + Cursebearer offer much much more in terms of both offense and defense. He doesn’t have points in Entangling Vines to avoid terrify retaliation from Dying God in Crucible, but usually you want points there for all purposes.

EDIT: oh and take green gloves, those Dark One gloves are absolutely useless and offer nothing, while green gloves are easy to craft and offer you very valuable phys res and casting speed.

3 Likes

Based on what, may I ask?

With all due respect, you are absolutely wrong and Dark One gloves are not useless at all. They provide damage, OA, some Elemental res overcap (might be handy in some situations, but not that critical), Wendigo Totem heals more, Health. Not to mention Armor. So what is useless in this case? Well… empty slot. It is indeed useless - no profits, no downsides, just nothing. Even basic white gloves provide Armor, it is small but has some portion of usefulness. Also, I wrote about Gloves slot in Gear/Build explanation section - “…Take whatever you want…”, no limitations.

About those two builds. I personally do not like RE and Storm Totems skills without any meaningful support (flat Vitality from Valguur helmet is not enough :neutral_face:). Especially RE, its DR role is inferior than Omen one, based on my experience. Okay to proc stuff, for DR just take Omen (which I did), enemies will not run away much thanks to Entangling Vines, immune elites just do not care. Savagery hurts mobility much, to get its bonuses you have to interrupt casting pretty often and put yourselves in facetanking danger - or lose profits. Personal preferences, I guess? :man_shrugging:. Performance-wise your builds may be great, but for me they look clunky, OA/DA/CC res-starved and too Crucible-style-oriented with all pros/cons included.

Based on tests of multiple reputable builders that corroborated it.

How do I answer to this? I thought you wanted feedback, I gave you feedback based on the examples of similiar but more optimally put together proven specs and explained why, but your reply doesn’t add anything to the actual discussion.

Not really, actual tests versus actual endgame content with video proofs corroborated by other reputable builders that played and tested similiar specs.

You are absolutely wrong, those builds do what your build does but much faster and safer. Here is a simple example, 2:23 Ravager kill with @Retal_Abuser Ritualist versus your 4:53 kill. Here is the same build doing Shard 100. How is that “Crucible oriented” again?

That explains a lot. Thanks for information.

Well, you conveniently ignore my gloves choice, what they offer for the build and my statement about its replaceability as if I just left the slot empty. Feedback is always welcome, by the way, but blatantly stating “useless” I cannot understand.

My personal preferences, I meant. You reputable builders are fine with Savagery buff uptime and RE, but I am not.

Safer? If you do not get hit, right? Then yes, I agree with that :slightly_smiling_face:.

Heavy damage-oriented, avoiding skills with Confuse/Terrify/in Vines case - Entrapment (since you need mobs to rush you uninterrupted to kill them as fast as possible), OA/DA/CC stats that can be patched with blessings (in Crucible), stashed gear choice (not always, I repeat, not always!), potions or just skillful gameplay.

Before you deign to answer, I want to say this. This build of mine is the most comfortable for me to play. I tried to explain in main topic how it can be improved in terms of damage, what items can be replaced etc. And later - why I do not use some skills that you use. So that it can be a start point to make players own adjustments and complete their comfortable build, if they are interested. Or take another one from reputable builders community, for example - the choice is players again. Mine is not the best, I show what it can do in my hands, then players like it or not and make decisions - follow it, made their own, take a glance for some ideas, criticize, completely skip, other stuff.

Hope I clarify enough. If not - sorry.

Of course “useless” is an exaggeration. Just like you trying to say that they are not “useless” because they are better than “no gloves”. But you can have 5% physical resist and 20% casting speed in this slot on a build that has 25% physical resist total (notice how our specs have 40+ phys res) for the price of few scraps (Demonic of Celerity gloves won’t be hard to craft). That’s 20% more physical resist - a huge defensive boost. That’s why green gloves are simply better than a tiny bit of extra healing to Wendigo Totem that heals you two times per second (on a build where 90% of healing comes from Vines).

Why do you feel the need to talk our builds down if I have just shown the proof that they do better in the most hardcore oriented content? Like here:

That’s not at all what we are doing. At this point you are just trying to downplay our stuff talking something that I don’t think you understand (no offense). The top20 best builds that represent our community are all battle-tested against hardest content and buffed Crucible was barely on our radar when we did it.

You said you wanted feedback but then you get all defensive when I am giving you one. It’s not personal, believe me, I am not trying to offend you or anything. However you posted a spec that has been figured out long ago on a public forum, it’s going to provoke discussion, that’s just how forum works.

I find the choice between Omen and RE always a tricky one. I’d guess RE is better for devotion proccing but Omen spreads quicker.

Not clear enough then. Sorry.

Let’s just remember that everyone plays the game differently and may want their builds to work differently too. Agree to disagree is sometimes the best option.

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Omen also costs less points, applies immediately after cast and has more DR. Depends on build and personal tastes, I tried RE and did not like it for DR purpose.

1 Like